Reinecke Six Miniature Sonatinas Op. 136 for Piano

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910) belongs to the generation of Romantic composers whose works avoided the spectacular but revealed genuine good taste and an appreciation of the past. Reinecke's extensive opus, comprises almost of 300 works in practically every musical genre: operas, symphonies, chamber music, spiritual and secular choral works, songs, organ and piano music. Robert Schumann dedicated his Four Fugues Op. 72 to Reinecke, praising him as "a young composer to my liking". But except for a few lyrical piano pieces, Reinecke's works hardly took account of Schumann's pianistic innovations. Rather, his Mendelssohn Bartholdy and the classical composers, whose sense of form runs like a red thread through all of Reinecke's works. He did not refute reproaches concerning his retrospective orientation; indeed, he would not have "admonished anyone for having me an epigone".